Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to speak in support of the motion of confidence in the Government. I respect that Opposition parties have a job to do to hold the Government to account. In truth, however, the putting down of a motion of no confidence in the Government by the Labour Party seems to me to be far more out about competition and headlines among Opposition parties than anything else. It comes in the week of the Labour Party conference and at a time the party continues to struggle for relevance and in the polls. I have a lot of respect for the Labour Party, as have others on this side of the House, but this is not a good direction for it to travel.

The Government is cohesive and united in the face of multiple challenges. In the context of this motion of no confidence, if we judge how this country is being governed and how we are seen from the outside, we are in a much better place than we often give ourselves credit for in this Chamber. Internationally, Ireland is seen as a progressive, stable country delivering economic growth and opportunity in the face of international turmoil and disruption. Companies want to come here and continue to come here in their droves. People want to live here. Our population is growing at a far faster pace than anybody could have predicted. That excludes the 90,000 or so people who have come here in the past 12 months seeking international protection. On virtually every international benchmark or measurement of quality of life, we continue to score well, including on life expectancy, progressive budgets, competitiveness, the qualify of life index, productivity, employment growth, youth employment, population growth, export growth, income per capita, the numbers attending third level education, consumer spending and wage inflation. The list goes on.

This country is far from perfect but our ability to weather storms, including Brexit, the Covid pandemic, inflation and the cost-of-living crisis, has been tested to the limits in recent years, and we have done okay. I am the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Today, we have the highest number of people employed in the history of our State, at just under 2.6 million. Employment growth last year was almost 70,000, and that growth took place in every county. Employment outside of Dublin grew by nearly 62,000 last year. Our economy is driven by record exports. Last year, despite the war in Ukraine, inflationary pressures and ongoing Covid disruption to supply chains, exports increased by €42 billion, or 26%, in one year.

This is not happening by accident. It is because of the solid and consistent pro-enterprise policies the Government parties continue to build on, while Opposition voices continue to take economic growth and revenue streams for granted. The reason this debate needs a voice highlighting our economic and enterprise growth is that without that economic strength, the challenges we need to overcome as a Parliament and a Government cannot be achieved. The Government has a proven track record in generating wealth, which we can now use to solve many of the social challenges we must take on.

I use the 30 seconds remaining to me to refer to housing. The Opposition parties have no monopoly of compassion on this issue. The fact there are nearly 12,000 people homeless today and in emergency accommodation, including nearly 3,500 children, is a scandal. It is a scandal we want to take on upfront, but with honesty rather than with slogans and populism. This is the hard work and complexity of being in government, which the Labour Party should understand a lot better than it is showing it does by putting down a motion of no confidence this week.

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